Los Angeles police officer Theodore Briseno defends his actions in the assault on motorist Rodney King during court testimony in Simi Valley, California, April 3, 1992. A scene from the video of the assault is shown at left.

King’s beating was caught on videotape. The officers were acquitted of charges of assault and excessive force. The acquittal was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back in Los Angeles, where racial tensions had been boiling over.

Part of a group of about 100 protesters gather outside the East County Courthouse, May 5, 1992, in Simi Valley, to protest the verdict in the trial of the four police officers who were acquitted in the Rodney King case.

A Los Angeles police officer holds a shotgun on two looting suspects as a California State Police officer puts handcuffs on them near Martin Luther King Blvd. and Vermont Ave. in South Central Los Angeles.